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Disruptive innovation

Ben Hammersley editor-at-Large for Wired magazine and guru of the digital age points to the realities we must face as a result of the impact of Moore’s Law. For example he discusses the impact of disruptive innovation and the Kodak example of inventing the digital pictures but not seeing how the initially substandard technology would grow to eliminate film photography.

If you see something coming down the line and you are dismissing it because it is not very good it is going to kill you in 10 years time. The inevitability of the tides of Moore’s Law make this so.

Hammersley argues that this very rapid rate of change puts us in a position of alway having to prepare for a future that we won’t be able to fully imagine. This rapid change is a fundamental force that is driving society forward. He offers the following example and challenge:

These weird fundamental forces are of the fact that every time you get a new phone it is out of date, every time you get a new laptop it is out of date… this is a fundamental driving force for the future of humanity. For those of us who understand it or learn to understand it, it is our responsibly to go out to other people, to go to our friends, colleagues relatives and specifically go to our politicians and our elected officials and tell them about these changes in the way we have to think.

These fundamental forces of change are part of our present reality and Hammersley argues that we are not doing a good job of preparing for the future because most of our leaders are confused by the present. His closing statement summarizes this challenge that we face:

“Right now, we have entrusted our future to those who are confused by the present and that is no way to go forward into the future.”

Are you doing your part to warn those in your sphere of influence about these fundamental forces of change? Are they listening?

I find it interesting that only 1/4 of all Windows users are planning to upgrade to Windows 8. Perhaps this is just another confirmation that we are moving into the Post-PC Era (see my post Is the Post-PC Age a Catalyst for the Start of the Digital Information Age?). Is Windows 8 just a sustaining innovation coming from company that has been disrupted by the cloud and mobile devices?

Jonathan Wai, a research scientist at the Duke University Talent Identification Program, argues that our schools ignore our most creative thinkers because:

Standardized Tests Do Not Include Spatial Measures

Most Teachers Are Not High Spatial

Spatially Talented People Are Not Very Vocal

Wai’s argument is based on his research into spacial intelligence. People with high spacial intelligence are the mechanical types, who can take apart and put back together just about anything. These types of people have little interest in words and numbers and because they are often less vocal and social their needs and amazing abilities are overlooked.

In his Psychology Today article Finding the Next Einstein: Why smart is relative, Wai points out that we habitually overlook some of the best and the brightest because of our reliance on standardized testing and intelligence testing which do not take into account spacial intelligence. Wai offers the following historical example of just how poorly intelligence testing identifies intelligence:

Over 90 years ago, Lewis Terman attempted to identify the brightest kids in California. There were two young boys who took Terman’s test but who did not make the cutoff to be included in this study for geniuses. These boys were William Shockley and Luis Alvarez, who both went on to study physics, earn PhDs, and win the Nobel Prize.

We have been overlooking or missing some of the brightest and best minds for a very long time, but we can’t afford to keep on ignoring these highly talented but different people any longer. These spacial thinkers are some of the best suited people to help us adapt to the disruptive change that is all around out us. What can we do to change our system and our schools to recognize and support these types of learners?

Wai suggests that we design educational interventions that are tailored to the spatial strengths. Hands on activities that encourage spatially talented students to work their hands is only the start. Perhaps first we need to be their voice. We all know people that are spatially talented and because they are often quiet and different they get overlooked or even ostracized and their talents and abilities are never fully realized. These are the people who not only can see different future they are the ones that can help us build it.

Who in your sphere of influence is a spacial thinker? What have you done to help them to maximize or even realize their potential?